God's Own Language: Architectural Drawing in the Twelfth Century by Karl Kinsella

Author:Karl Kinsella [Kinsella, Karl]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Architectural History; Medieval; Manuscripts; Architectural Drawing; Twelfth Century; Geometry; History of Science and Technology; France; Scotland; Theology
Publisher: MIT Press
Published: 2023-05-19T00:00:00+00:00

Fig. 5.2 Geometrical diagram showing the slope of the mountain. Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Bodl. 494, f. 154v.

The drawing’s purpose is to demonstrate the relationship between the plans and the three-dimensional structure that the prophet saw and walked on. The bottom line (the adjacent side) is that which runs from A to F, and the opposite side is the vertical line containing the segments E–K. If we follow Richard’s suggestion that each segment corresponds to twenty cubits, then the distance from A to E—where the adjacent and opposite sides meet—is eighty cubits. According to Richard, this adjacent line is the planum dimension, the two-dimensional length that assumes the gatehouse was located on a flat surface. In a right-angled triangle such as this, Richard proves that the hypotenuse is 100 cubits because it is the same length as the bottom line that runs from A to F. The hypotenuse represents the superficies measurement, the one that incorporates the slope of the mountain into its calculations. Knowing what each side of the triangle represents, we can then translate from one type of measurement to another. If we were to look at the diagram from above, as if floating above the triangle and looking down, we would see something like Richard’s plans. From that perspective, the planum measurement, which represents the entire width of the gatehouse, would be eighty cubits; that is, the line running from A to E. It is only when we shift perspective to how the diagram is actually presented, as if viewed from the side, that we can see the eighty cubits is an illusion resulting from the orthographic perspective of the plans, and that the same length covered by the hypotenuse is in fact 100 cubits. This geometric diagram is more like the elevations than the plans because it incorporates the three dimensions and makes the slope of the mountain and its influences on the gatehouse’s overall width plain to see.

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